







-^^0^ 



^^ : A q 



•^^ y<v 







<* . 'o • » 







^^ %./ ^;^^'^ %/ />-^^ %./ ^>^^ %/ 




%^ <y ^^^SK'. ^x_. ^^ /^^^:.V^ ''^<«. c^"^ » 



^0>9- 






'-' ■* • . 5 V ^^ 











^^ . 







.' o 



^oV" 






•' ^0 








5°^ '^^^i 








,v '^^,,^" ;^m' 



, 9 A V- O 






^oV" 



^^•n^ -'S^.' .^J-^''^ \'^M> ^^'^^. 



V 









.^"^ » 



"V * » « o ' ^^^ O^ » , , 












\ /.^^<>'"-o >^\.:;j>:,%^ .o^.:^",,^o, _,^^^ ■• 



A 










> 



jf^'.*' .<^^:^ 






»-o^- .^' 



vv 




y CiHeaAA^ fd^^v^o^ 



TEXAS, 



LATE MILITARY OCCUPATION 



EVACUATION. 



BY AN OFFICER OF THE ARMY. 



NEW YOKK : 
D. VAN NOSTRAXD,' 192 BROADWAY. 

18G2. 



TEXAS, 



LATE MILITARY OCCUPATION 



EVACUATION. 



BY AN OFFICER OF THE ARMY. 



NEW YOEK: 

D. VAN NOSTRAXD, 192 BROADWAY. 

1862. 



'l^ 






• ,• .•• ••• : : •: 

I * * ••• /•• J • •• ••• • 

' •:V:.V^:/j: :' ; *^j***' 



.o.\ 



0\7 



These pages have been linrriedly written from memory ; 
and contain, I have no doubt, many errors, I designed 
in writing them, an explanation of the circmnstances 
which attended tlie surrender of the regulars, and found 
that in this connection some general description of the 
country was necessary. 

West Point, July, 1862. 



'^'-•'^■■--■'*— "TS^SSTT 



- EnWIN D. PinLLTPS, 

Captain l.<?^ Infantry V^. S. A. 



T E X A.S, 



AND ITS LATE MILITARY OCCUPATION AND EVACUATION. 



In 1790 tlie Jesuit Missions, successively estab- 
lished northward of the Rio Grande during many 
preceding years, extended to the head-waters of the 
Nueces and the San Saba^ and reached nearly to the 
Sabine river and the sea. The happy influence 
which the Fathers had acquired over the Indians, 
seems to have been used with such complete and 
unremitting devotion to their welfare, that over 
their native prairies, they had learned to tend large 
herds and flocks ; while they looked with wonder 
upon unwonted scenes of wild peace and quiet, of 
the real nature and cause of which, they could have 
had no just appreciation. 

They still make upon their powder-horns the or- 



6 TEXAS, AND ITS LATE jnLITARY 

nament of the Cross ; and liave within i-eceut years, 
painted upon the high cliffs of the Concho, the rude 
picture of a Mission House "^dth its bell and rope — 
over tlie roofless ruins of which the rank cactus has 
climbed for years. 

This happy and peaceful period had nearly ex- 
pii'ed when the insurrection of the Spanish colonies 
began — for the gradual withdrawal, for the protec- 
tion of the Capital of Mexico, of the few Spanish 
troops who had been quartered at the Missions sub- 
jected the faithful priests first to insult, and finally 
to savage cruelty, until all had been murdered, 
driven across the inhospitable wastes to the west- 
ward, or comj)elled to seek a refuge in the sand isl- 
ands along the southern coast; and the country re- 
lapsed into a wilderness, inhabited by wild beasts, 
and Indians scarcely less so, in their unrestrained 
freedom. Its vast area is more than three times great- 
er than that of the six New England States, embrac- 
ing besides its large tracts devoted to the culture of 
corn, wheat, cotton, and sugar, nearly one hundred 
and seventy-five millions of acres of uncultivated land. 
No small portion of its territoiy was titled by the 
authoiities of Spain and Mexico, or granted in orig- 



OCCUPATION AND EVACUATION. 7 

inal acts of its own Congress and Legislature ; and 
still tlie public domain numbers perhaps not much 
less than one hundred millions of acres. Its surface 
is a vast slope ; the western limits of which, in the 
barren regions of the Llano Estacado, are four thou- 
sand five hundred feet, and its central portions two 
thousand feet above the sea. The coast range along 
the Gulf of Mexico is a level prairie, extending fifty 
miles into the interior, intersected by the large 
rivers, but nearly destitute of timber, if we except 
the small evergreen mesquite tree — a species of the 
acacia — which, encumbered in all its branches with 
the mistletoe, springs in every conceivable locality. 
Many cool springs and beautiful fresh and salt water 
lakes are met with in this prairie ; and many wild 
flowers, which in their wealth of fragrance compen- 
sate the lack of names, bloom in profusion during 
nearly the whole year. The region of high rolling 
plains, of detached liills, and of groves of the dwarf 
live-oak succeed, and within three hundred miles, 
mountains of moderate height, rocks, and small rapid 
streams abound, valleys and aroyas intervene, and 
the most charming landscapes everywhere appear. 
Still farther on, the country becomes more broken 



8 TEXAS, AND ITS LATE MILITAEY 

and difficult of access, until tlirough six hundred 
miles of peculiar and diversified scenery, we ap- 
proach the most inhospitable regions in the Staked 
Plains of Texas and New Mexico. The state pos- 
sesses perhaps very little of commercial interest ; 
has but few ports worthy of notice, among which 
may be mentioned those of Galveston, Indianola, La- 
vaca, Brownsville, and the villages of Matagorda 
Bay, and the connection of these with the interior 
is of the most indifferent and inadequate description. 
The villages, and indeed most of the settlements, are 
in the east; the wilderness is in the middle and 
the west ; and under heaven there can be no land 
which merits more the name — more wild, and beau- 
tiful, and unavailable. 

Extending: from the latitude of 25° 45' throuo;h 
nearly eleven degrees to the northward, and having 
so great an elevation, the softness and purity of its 
varied climate may seldom be equalled, and can 
scarcely be surpassed. The periodical northers oc- 
cur between the months of September and March, 
formed by the descent of cool air, which upon reach- 
ing the plains, hurries forward to the current of the 
trade-winds ; and during the warmer months, moist 



OCCUPATION AND EVACUATION. \) 

breezes from the ocean supply the place of the heat- 
ed air ascending from the prairie, and of the much 
needed summer rains, until farther to the westward 
they have, in climbing the Cordilleras ranges, lost 
all their moisture. These changing winds prevail 
as far westward as the north-eastern portion of the 
Staked Plains, to the mouth of the Pecos, and along 
the Sierra Madre to the sea. Mr. Thorpe, in his ac- 
count of the Broca Chica and the Brazos Santiago, 
remarks as to these restless winds along the coast, 
that " there seems ever to be some troubled spirit in 
the waters and air, that throws about the voyager's 
craft, and makes him cautious in his movements." 
It is indeed the most difficult and hazardous coast 
with which I am acquainted. Such are some of the 
general characteristics of Texas; deficient in large 
navigable rivers, in safe and capacious harbors, in 
railroads, in timber, in regular supplies of rain, in 
nearly every thing which may make available the 
resources of a country, however poor and barren ; 
abounding in every thing which nature may suj)ply 
for the wonder of her peculiar votaries. 

In July, 1845, Texas, by the action of its own 
Congress ratifying the joint resolutions of the Con- 



10 TEXAS, A^s'D ITS LATE 5IILITART 

gress of the United States, entered the Union, and 
became entitled to claim from it that military pro- 
tection which its own government had been power- 
less to render during the period of its existence as a 
separate republic. The Indians, occupying four- 
fifths of its territory, had hitherto prescribed the ut- 
most limit of the settlements, but now the throng 
of domestic and foreign emigration pressing forward 
to imaginary sources of wealth in the valleys of its 
upper streams — the commercial advantages present- 
ed in its roads to North Mexico and Santa Fe, and, 
over all, the adventurous restlessness Ijy which its 
unfixed population has ever been actuated — induced 
those earnest appeals with which she sought the aid 
of the general government, and in compliance with 
which, between the date of the conclusion of the 
peace with Mexico and the close of the year 18G0, 
there had been stationed in her territory, five regi- 
ments of infantry, two regiments of dragoons, the 
regiment of mounted riflemen, and two regiments 
of artillery. With the exception of tlie extreme 
upper positions, the points occupied by the troops 
were upon four consecutive lines of about seventy- 
five miles, one hundred and fifty miles, two hundred 



OCCUPATIOlSr AND EVACTJATIOlSr. 11 

and seventy-five miles, and four hundred miles from 
the coast, and nearly parallel to its general direction. 
The very numerous positions which these lines em- 
braced were not taken in consequence of the opinions 
of the department commanders; but the troops were 
perhaps pushed out very far beyond the natural lim- 
its of just military occupation, by the clamors of the 
restless people ; and the policy of distril:)uting the 
troops in weak lines, which, traced upon a map, 
would embrace more than three thousand miles, be- 
ing once adopted, might not be carelessly relinquish- 
ed, since every real or j)rojected settlement in the 
vicinity of the posts must otherwise be abandoned 
or frustrated. Meantime, the communication of the 
scattered garrisons with the headquarters of the 
department and with the states, was by the means 
of express mules and by the way of the prairie. 

The political relations of Texas with the general 
government, had been distinguished by a reliant faith 
in the efficiency and the justness of the Federal laws, 
and a pride in her connection with the family of the 
states, which rendered her poorest people exultant 
in time of peace, and would have placed them fore- 
most in deeds of daring in the event of foreign war. 



12 TEXAS, AND ITS LATE MLITAEY 

111 the beginning of the year 1861, she had at the 
head of her state government, a gentleman of un- 
questioned abilities, of much experience, and of pro- 
found discretion. Whatever may have been the po- 
litical aspirations of General Houston, and however 
perplexing the paths in which he is said to have 
sought their attainment, his fearless and continued 
advocacy of the union of the states will be remem- 
bered in the land where he is buried, when the dis- 
tinguishing policies pursued by many who surround- 
ed him shall have ceased to avail their reputation, 
or to evoke their memory. 

Nor are the subsequent acts of Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor Clarke, who succeeded him, to be construed as 
more or lees than the acknowledgment of the de- 
crees of the improperly constituted assemblages in 
whose hands he had ])een placed. Around him 
were convened a legislature, made up for the most 
part of disappointed ^politicians from abroad; and a 
convention, whose members represented, with few 
exceptions, the wishes of no classes of the communi- 
ty — whose homes supplied them no other patri- 
mony than the privilege of ruining, within its leg- 
islative halls, their native state ; they were, how- 



OCCUPATION AND EVACUATION. 13 

ever, tlie educated men who swayed tlie ignorant 
masses of the people ; tlieii' measures were taken 
mth the extremest circumspection, and prosecuted 
with such vigor, that within a few days, almost the 
entire population may be said to have been under . 
arms. 

The convention appointed three commissioners, 
who were instructed to demand the surrender of all 
the public property within the limits of the state. 
The commissioners found it extremely difficult to 
force the commanding general to any definite action ; 
for with his habitual caution, he avoided committing 
himself upon paper, and when pressed to act, he 
usually said, " I will give up every thing," and the 
exertions of Colonel Nichols, Assistant Adjutant- 
General, in all probability prevented a much more 
disgraceful capitulation than that which followed. 
In justice to General Twiggs, it may be remarked, 
that he constantly stated that, in the perplexing 
emergencies of his situation, he had* repeatedly dis- 
patched his staff-officers to the seat of the general 
government, with instructions to unfold the various 
difficulties under which he labored ; and requesting 
specific instructions as to the future conduct of af- 



14 TEXAS, AND ITS LATE MILITAEY 

fairs, whicli, "vvitli every succeeding clay, were becom- 
ing more complicated. 

On tlie 18tli of February, General Twiggs, from 
his headquarters in San Antonio, issued a general 
order, to the effect that the state of Texas, having 
through its commissioners demanded the delivery of 
the military posts and the public property within 
its limits ; and the commanding general being desir- 
ous of avoiding even the possibility of a collision 
between the Federal and the state troops, the posts 
would be evacuated l)y their garrisons, and the lat- 
ter would take up, as soon as the necessary prepara- 
tions could be made, the line of march out of Texas 
by way of the coast (marching out with their arms, 
the light batteries with their guns), clothing, camp 
and garrison equipage, quarter-master's, subsistence, 
medical, and hosj^ital stores, and such means of trans- 
portation of every kind as might be necessary for an 
efficient and orderly movement of the troojis, pre- 
pared for attack or defence against aggressions from 
any source, and caiTying with them provisions as far 
as the coast. Simultaneous with this order, aj^peared 
a circular of the commissioners, stating that, having 
been fully empowered by the state of Texas to ex- 



OCCUPATION AND EVACUATION. 15 

ercise tlie autliority wliicli tliey had undertaken, 
they had formally and solemnly agreed with brevet 
Major-General David E. Twiggs, U. S. Army, com- 
manding the department of Texas, that the troops 
of the United States should leave the soil of the 
state by way of the coast, that they should take 
with them the arms of the respective corps, includ- 
ing the battery of light artillery at Fort Duncan, and 
the battery of the same description at Fort Brown ; 
and should be allowed the necessary means for reg- 
ular and comfortable movement — provisions, tents, 
etc., etc., and transportation. The public proj^erty 
at the various posts, other than that above mention- 
ed, to be turned over to agents, to be appointed by 
the commission; and who would render due and 
proper receipts to the officers of the army, whom 
they would relieve from the custody of the public 
property. This order and circular did not reach the 
military j)osts until several weeks after their pro- 
mul2:ation. 

Meantime a general order, dated at the War De- 
partment, January 28th, relieving General Twiggs 
from the command of the department of Texas, and 
directing Colonel Carlos A. Waite, of the first regi- 



16 TEXAS, Ain) ITS LATE SIILITAEY 

ment of infantry, to assume tlie command, reached 
tlie headquarters in San Antonio ; and so soon as the 
commissioners became aware of the nature of this 
order, measures were taken to intercept the express- 
man bearing the order to Colonel Waite, whose reg- 
imental headquarters were on the Verde Creek, a 
tributary of the Guadalupe River, and about sixty- 
five miles from San Antonio. These measures were 
frustrated by the foresight of Colonel Nichols, who 
had taken the precaution to send two separate ex- 
presses; the first was captured and taken back to 
San Antonio, but the second one reached Camp 
Verde at twelve o'clock m., on the lYth of Februaiy, 
and within three hours thereafter, Colonel Waite, 
escorted by a detachment of cavalry, took the road 
to San Antonio, where he arrived between one and 
two o'clock p. M., on the 1 8th, and found that all ne- 
gotiations were closed, and that General Twiggs 
had surrendered all of the posts and the public 
property to the state of Texas ; that the town was 
occupied by a large force of Texan troops, and 
that strong guai'ds had been placed over the ord- 
nance and ordnance stores, the clothing depot, and 
the commissary and quartermaster's departments, 



■ OCCUPATIOIS" AND EVACUATION. 17 

including means of transportation of every kind; 
while the two companies of United States i-egulars 
had been withdrawn from the to^\Ti, and were en- 
camped at some distance from the public stores. 
General Twiggs' oixler, relinquishing the command 
and transferring it to Colonel Waite, was issued on 
the 19th of February, and on the same- day the 
latter assumed command of the department, and 
from this time all the efforts of this faithful and 
accomplished officer were directed to the safe re- 
moval of the troops from Texas. 

In the latter part of 1859, all the means of trans- 
portation (mules and ^vagons) at the military posts, 
over and above such as were indispensable for the 
purposes of hauling fuel and water for the use of 
the troops, and for the carrying of the mails, had, 
in compliance with a circular issued from the quar- 
termaster's office at the department headquarters, 
been transferred to the general depot in San Anto- 
nio; so that the spring of 1861 found the scattered 
garrisons destitute- of the means necessary for pro- 
tracted marches across western and middle Texas, 
but ample provisions for this emergency were found 
in the stipulations which had been arranged be- 



18 TEXAS, AXD ITS LATE MILrTARY 

tween General Twist's and the commissioners. In 
the circular of the latter, and in the general order of 
the late commander of the department for the evacua- 
tion of the posts, and Colonel AVaite having speedily 
arranged his plans for the movement of the troops, 
lost no time in urging upon the commissioners a 
prompt compliance with the agi'eement into which 
they had entered, and the immediate dispatch of the 
necessary means of transportation, which were now 
completely under their own control. 

It is not known that the commissioners deliber- 
ately planned to delay the transportation, which 
had to be sent in some instances to distances of 
more than six hundred miles; but it is certain that 
the trains were gotten in readiness and dispatched 
up the country with sucli slowness as to warrant 
the conclusion that tliey were at the least by no 
means desirous for the sj^eedy departure of the 
troops. Some extenuation of the course which they 
pursued in this, as Avell as in many subsequent trans- 
actions, all tending to embarrass the action of the 
department commander, may be had in the anxiety 
which they may have felt for the safety of the settle- 
ments, which, with the sudden withdrawal of the 



OCCUPATIOlSr AND EVACUATIOlSr. 19 

troops, must be exposed to the incursions of tlie 
Indians; still, it is j^erliaps natural to presume, that 
they conceived all delays to be favorable to the 
purpose, which they doubtless entertained, of per- 
suading a portion of the troops to join their cause. 
" They are," say the commissioners in their circular 
letter of the 18th of February, "our friends, who 
have hitherto afforded us all the protection in their 
power ; and it is our duty to see that no insult or 
indignity is offered them." 

Early in April, Earle Van Dorn, late major in the 
regular service, an officer of much distinction in the 
Indian campaigns, who had thrown up his commis- 
sion on the secession of his native state of Missis- 
sippi, reappeared upon the coast of Texas, and 
openly avowed his intention to take with him such 
companies of the regulars as his abundant reputa- 
tion might enable him to entice into the service of 
the Confederate States, and, as if by preconcerted 
arrangement, the San Antonio newspapers immedi- 
ately teemed with articles designed to explain, that 
in the great emergencies which were ensuing, the 
soldiers were naturally relieved from the oaths of 
allegiance which they had taken, and were at perfect 



20 TEXAS, AISTD ITS LATE inLITAEY 

liberty to quit the service of tlie United States. 
About this time, Lieutenant Thornton A, AYashing- 
ton, quartermaster of the first regiment of infantiy, 
wlio, in the implicit confidence of his commanding 
officer, had been detached as quartermaster to the 
port of Indianola, and who was fully depended upon 
for the transaction of all business relative to the 
embarkation of the troops, sent in his resignation, 
and quitted his post and the public j^roperty con- 
signed to his care. But it is not proj^osed in this 
connection to enumerate the various difficulties 
which surrounded the troops, and embarrassed their 
able commander. How many of these difficulties 
and impediments may have resulted from the pre- 
concerted action of individuals, previous to the seces- 
sion of the state, I am not able to say. Major Barnard, 
in his interesting " Letter to an English Friend," re- 
marks : " Mr. Floyd had taken care that the army 
should not be available to his successor. It was scat- 
tered on our distant frontiers, and tlie capture of a 
large portion in Texas was managed through the 
ao-encv of its commanding officer, a worthy accom- 
plice and compeer in infamy of such a chief." Mean- 
time the troops, on receiving their transjoortation. 



OCCUPATIOlSr AND EVACUATION. 21 

marclied rapidly down the country, by the way of 
the El Paso road, by Fort Mason and Fredericks- 
burgh, and by Eagle Pass and Brownsville. The 
light batteries, the cavalry, and a portion of the in- 
fantry, reached the coast in time to embark on the 
first steamers which arrived, and sailed for the 
North with sealed orders, w^hile the remainder of the 
troops, consisting of t^-vo companies of the -first, 
three companies of the third, and nine companies of 
the eighth regiments of infantry, were still on the 
march for the camp of rendezvous at Green Lake, 
about thirty miles from the coast. 

Among the earliest dispositions made by Colonel 
Waite, on assuming the command of the depart- 
ment, had been the selection of this position at Green 
Lake, and its occupation by the two companies of 
infantry recently composing the garrison of San 
Antonio barracks, commanded by brevet Major 
Larkin Smith, of the eighth, a gentleman whose 
high qualities have for years been the theme of his 
own corps, but w^hose subsequent action I am not 
able to explain ; for immediately after breaking up 
his camp, near the middle of April, and while un- 
der orders from his immediate commander at the 



22 TEXAS, AND ITS LATE MILITARY 

coast, to proceed to Washington, ^vitli verbal dis- 
patches to the government, he suddenly threw up 
his commission, and soon afterward entered the ser- 
vice of the Confederate States, 

Near the middle of April the last of the trooj^s 
destined to constitute the next shipment I'eached 
the vicinity of Indianola, and Major Sibley of the 
third, senior officer, immediately sent forward the 
baggage; and the troops, consisting of two com- 
panies of the first, and the adjutant and non-com- 
missioned staff and band of the same regiment, 
three companies of the third, and two companies 
of the eighth, marched through the town, and 
sleeping at night upon the long wharf, early in 
the next morning went on board of the Uvo small 
steam lighters which had been chartered for their 
use, and proceeded down Matagorda Bay, to em- 
bark on the steamer "Star of the West," which, 
guarded by the Gunboat Mohawk, had for two weeks 
been lying off the bar a^vaiting their arrival. But on 
reaching the mouth of the harbor, twenty-five miles 
below Indianola, they saw no sign of either of these 
steamers, a circumstance which, though it created 
some uneasiness in the minds of the officers, and was 



OCCUPATION AXB EVACUATION. 23 

somewliat dispiriting to the men, was in itself insuffi- 
cient to justify aii}^ reasonable apprehension of bad 
faith on the part of the people ; for it was known that 
in the constantly prevailing coast winds, the Star of 
the West had, since her arrival off the bar, twice 
parted her cables and gone to sea ; and the Mo- 
hawk, obliged to keep up steam constantly, had in 
all probability exhausted her supply of fuel, and 
gone to Havana for coal. More reasonable grounds 
for suspicion might have been entertained in con- 
nection with the behavior of the harbor pilots, had 
these been characterized by as much of vigilance 
and intelligence as distinguish the pilots in north- 
ern Avaters, for many of them were absent from 
their stations, and tlie information afforded by 
those who remained was exceedingly unsatisfactory; 
facts, however, which as relating to Texan pilots 
were not very surprising. However, Major Sibley 
at once decided to go to sea in the lighters, and 
make for the port of Tampico, on the coast of Mexico, 
two or three hundred miles below the mouth of the 
Rio Grande, at which port was a United States 
consul, and where it was presumed vessels might 
be obtained to convey the troops to the North. 



24 TEXAS, AND ITS LATE JIILITAEY 

There were at tbis time crowded upon these two 
small lighters seven companies of infantry, Avith 
their anns and camp equipage, the non-commis- 
sioned staff and band of one regiment, and not less 
than thirty laundresses. Only one day's supply of 
provisions and water for the troops had been 
taken, as the Star of the West had on hoard for 
their use some twenty thousand rations; and as the 
terms of the late capitulation did not pennit the 
taking of any supplies whatever beyond the coast. 
Soon after Major Sibley had taken the resolution to 
proceed to Tampico, he ascertained that neither of 
the lighters had more than five or six hours' coal on 
board, and there remained to him no other course 
than to abandon his jiroject, and returning to Indi- 
anola to take possession of his supplies while he 
had the power of reaching them ; for the low, sandy, 
and almost impassable shores of Matagorda Bay 
afford no means of sustenance, and even the water 
is very impure and brackish. Accordingly the 
lighters returned, and in the same evening the 
troops disembarked, and taking possession of their 
supplies, encamped near Indianola; and the next 
day Lieutenant Whipple of the third, with a 



OCCUPATION AND EVACUATION. 25 

small guard, was clispatclied down the bay to watch 
for the appearance of the trans]3ort and the gunboat. 
This officer soon returned with very important in- 
formation. No sign of either steamer was visiljle ; 
but he had ascertained that two or three pieces of 
cannon had been placed in position upon the wharf 
at Saluria, so as to command the channel near its 
entrance to the sea. 

This demonstration of hostile intentions appeared 
conclusive, and Major Sibley immediately detached 
Lieutenant Whipple with as many men as a small 
yacht could accommodate, with orders to take ad- 
vantage of the favorable wind which was blowing, 
and under cover of the night to land at Saluria and 
caj^ture the guns ; and before daylight in the morn- 
ing. Captain Bowman of the third, with forty men, 
was sent forward to support him, should his assist- 
ance be necessary. In the evening both expedi- 
tions returned ; Lieutenant Whipple having ascer- 
tained that the guns had been removed, probably 
up St. Mary's bayou, or by a sloop ^o La Yaca. 

Meantime Major Sibley had taken possession of 
the only means of trans^^ortation in the harbor, 
with which it was practicable to go to sea, con- 



20 TEXAS, AKD ITS LATE MILITARY 

sistino' of two scliooners of about one liuiulred and 
fifty tons burden eaeli, recently from northern 
ports, and only one of wliicli liad diseliarged lier 
cargo. A strong guard occupied tlie long wliarf, 
and a fotigue party of a hundred men was de- 
tached for the work of unloading the freighted 
schooner, which continued all night, and so soon 
as this work was accomplished, and the necessary 
supplies were placed on board, the troops em- 
barked, and, towed by tlie lighters, the two 
schooners proceeded down the bay. Strong south- 
easterly winds were Ijlowing across the l^ar, and 
the weather outside was evidently stormy; but 
long before reaching the lower bay, the masters 
of the schooners had informed Major Sible}^, that 
■vvith their overcrowded decks, the schooners could 
not jiossibly be maniged in the open sea; but 
that in case an additional trans])ort could be pro- 
cured to take off a portion of the troops, the}" 
would have no hesitation in attempting to pass 
the channel of the bar, even without pilots, and 
though they were but slightly acquainted with the 
coast. However, night came on before the vessels 
had reached the vicinity of the l)ar, over which the 



OCCUPATION AND EVACUATION. 27 

rapid surf was pushing, and tlie darkness soon 
made it impossible for the lighters to tow them 
through its narrow channel. They anchored at 
dark, and Captain Bo^vman, of the third, and 
Lieutenant Greene, of the first, with a detach- 
ment of thirty men, were sent on board one of 
the lighters, and taking advantage of this neces- 
sary delay, were directed to proceed up the bay 
and brino; down a brio- which was known to be 
somewhere ahove, and might have reached In- 
dianola since the departure of the schooners. The 
next day presented no indications of more favor- 
able weather; however, a steamer's smoke was 
visible to the seaward, and it was presumed that 
the Star of the West or the Mohawk was ap- 
proaching the coast. As the day wore on, the 
steamer closed under the projecting strips of land 
to the south-eastward, though nothing but the 
dense smoke from her stacks was visible ; not a 
solitary sail appeared in the offing, and no pilots 
came near the vessels. Detachments of troops 
were sent off in the boats of the schooners to fill 
the ^vater liarrels which had l)een emptied, as 
there was on board scarcely a sufficient supply 



28 TEXAS, AND ITS LATE MILITARY 

for Key West or Havana. Meantime the remain- 
ing lighter had nearly exhausted her fuel, and 
was let go ; and during the afternoon the appear- 
ance of the other lighter, with the brig, was anx- 
iously expected; but night at leng-th closed in 
with no signs of either, while the wind across 
the narrow, crooked channel of the dangerous bar 
was still freshening. At ten o'clock, though 
the night was dark, dense volumes of smoke 
M'ere seen not far above the schooners, and a 
l)oat, with a small party, commanded by Lieu- 
tenant Hopkins, of the third, left the command- 
ing officer's schooner to ascertain the cause. This 
careful and sagacious officer soon returned with 
the information that several steamers were an- 
chored above the schooners, and it was now appa- 
rent that Caj^tain Bowman's detachment had been 
captured, and that the schooners were entrapped 
to the Avindward, by the steamer which had l^een 
supposed the Star of the AVest, and in the other 
direction l:)y the steamers which had arrived in 
the niorht. At davli2:ht three steamers were seen 
at anchor five hundred yards above the schoon- 
ers, each having on a full head of steam, their 



OCCUPATIOlSr AND EYACUATIOjST. 29 

double decks siirroiuided with tiers of cotton- 
bales, and bearing, as is believed, tlie pieces of 
cannon wliicli were mentioned as havino: been 
at Saluria some days previous. 

Later in the mornins; tlie lars;e steamer wliicli 
had l)een lying outside passed the bar, and, ^^itli 
steam up, anchored three hundred yards to the 
windward of the schooners, bearing upon her decks 
one twenty-four-pounder and two field-pieces. The 
Texan troops on board of the four steamers num- 
bered between one thousand and fourteen hundred 
men, supplied with various kinds of fire-arms, and 
having between three and seven pieces of cannon. 
The reo'ulars on the two schooners numbered not far 
from three hundred men, armed with the rifle and 
bayonet; still it is presumed the latter had been 
something more than a match for their opponents 
could they have met them in the field. The steamers 
possessed, however, the capability of running around 
the schooners, and of sinking either of them before 
she could get under way; and there was therefore 
nothing left but to accede to the formal demand 
which had been made in the morning by Earle Van 
Dorn, colonel in the Confederate States army, com- 



30 TEXAS, AND ITS LATE ^MILITARY 

manding the Texan troops in Matagorda Bay, 
through his commissioners, avIio came off to the 
schooners under a flag of truce. The terms of the 
capitulation were accordingly arranged in the course 
of the day, and Major Sibley, with the approval of 
all of his officers, suiTendered; the Texans, besides 
capturing the troops, obtaining by this affair more 
than three hundred fine rifles, with equipments, 
and the camp e(2ui2iage of seven companies of 
infantrj^ 

Tlie particulars of this first surrender have been 
thus minutely I'elated, in consequence of the some- 
what severe strictures which appeared in the news- 
papers, and which did not, so far as has been ob- 
served, attach to the other column of seven compa- 
nies of the eighth, under Lieutenant Colonel Reeve, 
which was still (late in Ajiril) marching down the 
El Paso road. Indeed, the particulars of the cap- 
ture of the last-named column can need no lengthy 
recital ; f^r, on its reaching middle Texas, in the 
month of ^May, the supplies necessary to its advance 
were in the hands of the ao'ents of the Confederate 
States; while, at the smallest estimate, fifteen thou- 
sand men, with two splendid batteries of light 



OCCUPATION AND EVACUATION. di 

artillery, opposed its marcli in any direction. To 
Lave advanced into tlie settlements witli liis com- 
mand of three or four hundred men, would have 
been more prudent in Colonel Reeve, than without 
supplies to have retreated toward the Rio Grande ; 
and either course would have been alike preposter- 
ous, and he accordingly surrendered. 

On the 23rd of April, one day previous 
to the cajDture of the first column of the troops, 
Colonel Waite, with his staff, and all of the offi- 
cers on duty at San Antonio, were made prisoners, 
under circumstances peculiarly aggravating; for, 
to the declarations of the former, that neither him- 
self nor his staff-officers could even perceive the 
validity of the claim which their captors assumed 
to the exercise of the delegated authority of the 
Congress of Montgomery, it Avas only replied, that 
it should, at the least, Ije made apparent that he 
and the other gentlemen were prisoners ; and that 
physical force should not be wanting as a fiiU and 
sufficient argument, in the circumstances of the ap- 
parent distrust, which was exhibited in the agents 
of the Confederate States; one of whom. Major 
Maclin, had until quite recently retained his com- 



32 TEXAS, .AND ITS LATE MILITARY 

mission as paymaster, in the service of the United 
States. 

Of course, the discussions which ensued were un- 
availing ; nor could appeal he had from these 
agents, to a people who perceived only their first 
men leading the Avay toward that ol>ject, which 
the latter hlinded their own eyes in pursuing, and 
which the ignorant had been taught to imagine they 
beheld in the full light of justice and reason ; for 
party heat, and the frenzy, which have been dis- 
played upon less grave political questions in happier 
times, found here no wise exam])les of restraint, but 
every encouragement to their indulgence. 

Colonel Waite, and the officers at San Antonio, 
as Avell as the officers and men of Major Sildey's 
command, were permitted, should they desire it, the 
privilege of returning to the North on parole ; every 
inducement being at the same time presented for 
the troops to quit their allegiance and enter the 
service of the Confederate States, 

The giving and the receiving of a parole must be 
matter of equal delicacy ; for he who from a sense 
of duty, or who, actuated by interested motives, 
may ask a pledge of honor from another, must be 



t> OCCUPATIOJN- AND EVACUATION. 33 

sensible of a power whicli lie is wielding, wliicli 
makes up for tlie disinclination to acquiescence in 
tlie other ; and lie who shall render such a pledge 
must be aware that he will purchase at the price of 
an equal power, all of the privileges and the immu- 
nities which it may be equal to ; and it is ])resumed 
that no one Avould consent to give his parole, who 
should be aware that in refusino- to do so, he niis-ht 
subserve any interest of his government : but if in 
giving it he yieldno such interest, it is conjectured 
there may often be no reasonable grounds for with- 
holdins: it. Colonel Waite and the officers at San 
Antonio, as well as the officers and men of Major 
Sibley's command, were paroled. The latter officer 
obtained an additional transport for his troops, and 
so soon as the necessary arrangements could be 
made, the vessels passed the bar and proceeded to 
sea : they reached New York harbor in a voyage of 
thirty days. Colonel Reeve's command, which was 
captured in May, comprised all of the remaining 
troops who occupied the dejDartment of Texas. 
They were not permitted to return on parole, but 
were held as close prisoners at San Antonio. The 
Texaus had now captured fourteen companies of the 



34 TEXAS, AND ITS LATE SIILITARY 

regulars, including two companies of the first, 
three companies of the third, and nine companies 
of the eighth regiments of infantry, numbering, 
perhaps, not far from seven hundred men, with 
rifles, camp equipage, and ordnance stores; and 
the United States no longer held military posses- 
sion of the state. 

During the years of its occupation by the troops, 
the state had steadily advanced in prosperity, and 
all of its natural resources had been most rapidly 
developed, until from having been in 1845 almost 
without a foreign commerce, the value of her ex- 
ports to Great Britain alone, in 1860, cannot have 
been far short of ten millions of dollars, while her 
trade with New Orleans and the various Northern 
ports may have amounted to five millions more. 

Post-offices and judicial tribunals had been es- 
tablished in the new counties which were con- 
structed as the troops advanced west^^'ard, and 
laro-e tracts of land embraced within their limits, 
not suited to the pi'oduction of the cereal grains, 
supplied in every season of the year abundant 
pasturage, to immense herds of beef cattle and 
horses. 



OCCUPATION AND EVACUATION. 35 

The disorderly population of former years had 
become a law abiding people, who, emulous in all 
the advantages of cultivated life, had grown obser- 
vant of the rules and customs which are prescribed 
for their attainment. 

With the withdrawal of the troops from Texas, 
her days of progress were for the present num- 
bered ; the settlements were broken up, and twenty 
years of the returning peace, may scarcely suffice 
to replace them. 



— 








D. VAN NOSTRAND, 


! 




PUBLISHER 






AND IMPORTER OF 






P^ilitarj), flabal, anir Scientific 


1 
\ 




BOOKS, 






192 Broadway, New York. 


i 




A LA ROE STOCK 






OF THE PRINCIPAL 






rx'eiicli, Englislx, and. A.iTierican 


1 




MILITARY AND ENGINEERING WORKS 


1 




0>" II^\.]VI>. 


1 

i 

i 


CCMPLETE CATALOGUES, 




With Prices, sent free hy mall on application. 


1 


SPECIAL ATTENTION 




Paid to Importing Military and Scientific Boohs. 






%m gnt\%\\ §00fe^ 






Received as soon as Published. 




_ 


.„_ ... ....... . , - 


— ' 



'>l^/ 
















^ 



--S''^ 



^^?*" ^'^''^'^'^^^ ^^^*" ^/^ \^ ^^fK 






^v:^4;^*' .x^' 



v>. 















%. '.^^^^'^ ^^^ -'o '>'^^.^ O ^ ^^^i^jMS 



^^•v ''• 









^¥-- "-^..^^" .-isM^'. \,^^* /.fig^'. 

■ ^ .r 



!^: ^^v 






-y ^i 



c 









'b V^ 










^ .^'^. Wlf^* y-v, ^ms 



^-^ 

'^^ ^.^ •-^.^/ 




7-./^^ .0^ 



1. V O^ * o « 



» '^, 








-0' . 









' • « o. 



^0^ -A 



> 



•iq 



x^ 



<0 -7- * «'" ">-:.-■■' 














iV>-. 






<. 



'b V" 



-^.^^ 



C^ . 



•"mm?' ^° 




^-^"^ .^J4:% ^^ 








■^^r 



/jd;^; ^^'-V, 







,V 



.S^r 







-i* 











^. 






V .- 

OOBBS BROS. .^ 

LIBRARY BINOINC A 






ST. AUGUSTINE ''^ * , ^ ^ . ■" . "^ 



<-> "' . 




°- > 



' A <^. "^r. »^ .0 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 647 182 1 



